The Edinburgh Property Blog

Tuesday, 13 November 2018

Today’s buy to let opportunity from The Edinburgh
Property Blog needs a bit of TLC to bring out its full potential.The property is a two-bed first-floor flat in Essendean
Place in the Clermiston area of Edinburgh ..... it’s in a three-storey block of ex-Council flats that were built 60-65 years ago.

It has a large lounge, big enough to have a dining area
as well, with sliding doors to a balcony, a fitted kitchen, two double bedrooms
and a bathroom which has a shower over the bath.The property has double glazing and gas
central heating.In addition, it has
residents parking and a private, as well as a shared, area of garden to the
rear of the property.

The property is in need of a bit of modernisation (a bit
of work to the kitchen and bathroom as well as re-decoration and new carpets
(there appear to be no floor coverings)).

In addition, it is worth noting that the property is
being ‘sold as seen’.This means that
there is less than the normal legal protections on offer by the seller so best
you do your homework to ensure that the property is what they say it is.

Looking at the numbers.The asking price for this property, which is on the market with Scot
House Move Property, is offers over £105,000; the Home Report values the
property at £110,000.Let’s say it goes
for £115,000 and you need to spend £5,000 on your ‘TLC’ getting you to a cost
of £120,000. The flat should let for around
£700 pcm which get you to a yield of around 7%.

We hope you find our posts useful.If you would like some advice with your
potential investment, please call me on 0131 603 4570 or email me on robert@thekeyplace.co.uk.

Tuesday, 6 November 2018

Last week, a landlord came in to our office to discuss
the rising property values in Edinburgh. He owns a varied portfolio of rental
properties, primarily in Edinburgh, and is thinking of buying more properties so
he was interested in comparing the increase in property values around the area.

Over the last 5 years the average property value in Edinburgh
has risen by £59,217, from £234,935 to £294,152. This is an increase of £227.76
per week. When you dig a bit deeper, the values for flats has performed the
best in percentage increase terms with the average increase of flats over the
last 5 years being 31% or £53,152 or £204.43 per week whereas terraced houses
have performed the worst in percentage increase terms as they have only seen an
increase of value of 21% or £60,943 or £234.40 per week over this period.The value of detached and semi-detached
houses has increased by 22-26% so they are somewhere in between flats and terraced
houses.

When we looked at some of the surrounding towns, what we
found was very interesting as their property prices have all increased less
than Edinburgh other than Balerno and Juniper Green.Balerno has had the highest average increase
in property value at around £240.66 per week with Juniper Green being not that
far behind on £233.66 per week, followed by Kirkliston on £194.65, Currie on £187.49,
Linlithgow on £172.56, South Queensferry on £171.35, Dalkeith on £144.50, Musselburgh
on £137.54, Penicuik on £133.72 and finally Livingston on £131.34 per week.

So overall average property values in the area have risen
which suggests that the local property market is doing well although, as
always, there are pockets that are doing better than others.

When considering this landlord’s buy to let portfolio,
the rental values have also been increasing over the last 5 years.

So with rising property prices and rents, it could be a
good time to invest in the property market in Edinburgh.

We hope you find our posts useful.If you would like some advice with your
potential investment, please call us (on 0131 603 4570) or email us (edinburgh@thekeyplace.co.uk).

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

Speed of the essence for today’s buy to let from The
Edinburgh Property Blog.

The property is a one-bed flat in High Riggs in Tollcross
..... it’s a traditional Edinburgh stone tenement right in the heart of the
city.

It has a lounge with a kitchen off it, a double bedroom
and a shower room. It is in need of
modernisation (new kitchens, possibly new shower room (there is no picture of
the shower room), re-decoration and carpets) to get the most rent out of it but
you could probably get away with some cosmetic work if you were prepared to
accept less rent.

Looking at the numbers.
The asking price for this property, which is on the market with Clyde
Property, is offers over £105,000 so let’s say it goes for £125,000 as it is
priced to sell. The flat should let for around
£650 pcm with a bit cosmetic work (say £5,000) or £725 (with a complete
refurbishment) which get you to a yield of around 6% .... not bad for a
traditional stone tenement flat in the heart of the city.

A wee bit of advice – you will need to move fast if you
want to get this property as the property is priced to sell and it involved
modernisation which excites people as they think there is more money to be made
(which is not always the case due to overspends).

We hope you find our posts useful. If you would like some advice with your
potential investment, please call me on 0131 603 4570 or email me on robert@thekeyplace.co.uk.

Friday, 26 October 2018

Landlords often ask us what goes on behind the scenes at The Key Place and so we thought we would share our experiences, and what we have learned from those experiences, with you.

This week I’ve got a story for you about how The Key Place goes the extra mile to help our tenants, and therefore our landlords too.

We had a tenant in full time paid employment (a supervisory role), who came with great references. Very sadly his grandfather died, who he was very close to. As a direct result of this, the tenant went off the rails. He split up with his long term partner, and got the sack from work for not doing his job properly. He was unable to pay his rent and while we were chasing him for non-payment, he disappeared.

The tenant was a local lad, and as The Key Place is largely staffed by local people, they started asking around to see if they could find him. Using our fantastic contacts, we did locate him, and arranged for him to come into the office to discuss how we could find a resolution to the situation.

We managed to speak to the company he worked for who, once they understood what had been happening, offered him a job, although at a lower grade. The tenant had racked up a few debts, including his rent, and so couldn’t afford to rent a flat from us anymore. We worked with the landlord to allow the tenant out of his lease, so that we could re-let the flat as soon as possible and get rent in for the landlord. The tenant left the property in great condition, and moved in with family. We set up a repayment plan with the tenant so that we could recover the missing rent on behalf of the landlord.

It just goes to show that there may be more to a non-paying tenant than meets the eye. Rather than writing this off, The Key Place managed to work with the tenant to resolve the problem. The landlord now has a good long term let on his property and is also recouping the lost rent. The course of action we followed resulted in the best outcome for the landlord – our extensive experience of the practicalities, as opposed to just the laws/rules of letting, allowed us to reach this conclusion. And the tenant is happy and getting his life back on track. All’s well that ends well.

Tuesday, 23 October 2018

Edinburgh faces a predicament - the population is growing and the provision of new housing isn’t keeping up .... even with the uncertainty caused by BREXIT. With the average age of a Edinburgh person being 38.6 years (compared to the national average of 40.4 years of age), the population of Edinburgh is growing at an alarming rate. This is due to an amalgamation of longer life expectancy, a fairly high birth rate (compared to previous decades) and net immigration (even with BREXIT), all of which contribute to housing shortages and burgeoning house prices.

And the population is going to continue to increase. Using data provided by the National Records of Scotland, I forecast that the Edinburgh population will grow as follows:

2016 population 486,310
2021 population 496,237
2026 population 506,727
2031 population 515,928
2036 population 522,590

The normal ratio of people to property is 2 to 1 in the UK, which therefore means that we need just over 18,100 additional new properties to be built in Edinburgh over the next 20 years.

Whilst focusing on population growth does not tackle the housing crisis in the short term in Edinburgh, it has a fundamental role to play in long-term housing development and strategy in the town. The rise of Edinburgh property values over the last 10 years since the credit crunch is primarily a result of a lack of properties coming onto the market, a lack of new properties being built in the town and rising demand (especially from landlords looking to buy property to rent them out to the growing number of people wanting to live in Edinburgh but can’t buy or rent from the Council).

Although many are talking about the need to improve supply (ie the building of new properties), the issue of accumulative demand from population growth is often overlooked. Nationally, the proportion of 25-34 year olds who own their own home has dropped dramatically from 66.7% in 1987 to 43.8% in 2014, whilst 78.2% of over 65’s own their own home. Longer life expectancies mean houses remain in the same hands for longer.

In the short to medium term, demand for a roof over one’s head will continue to grow in Edinburgh (and Scotland as a whole). In the short term, that demand can only be met from the private rental sector (which is good news for homeowners and landlords alike as that keeps house prices higher).

In the long term though, local and national Government and the UK population as a whole, need to realise these additional people over the next 20 years need to live somewhere. Only once this issue starts to get addressed, in terms of extra properties being built in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, can we all help create a socially ecological prosperous future for everyone.

If you want to discuss any property matters, email me on news@thekeyplace.co.uk or call me on 0131 603 4570.

Tuesday, 16 October 2018

The buy to let opportunity from The Edinburgh Property
Blog is one bed flat in Fountainbridge that is in walk-in condition.

The flat is in Gibson Terrace in Fountainbridge.It has a lounge with a kitchen as well as a
study off it, a double bedroom and a shower room.The decoration and carpets look in good order
and it has a fairly new kitchen and shower room.

Turning to the financials.The asking price for this property, which is
on the market with VHM Solicitors, is offers over £130,000 so let’s say it goes
for £145,000The flat should let for around
£700 pcm which get you to a yield of 5.8%.

We hope you find our posts useful.If you would like some advice with your
potential investment, please call me on 0131 603 4570 or email me on news@thekeyplace.co.uk.

Friday, 12 October 2018

Landlords often ask us what goes on
behind the scenes at The Key Place and so we thought we would share our
experiences, and what we have learned from those experiences, with you.

I had a call from one
of my team to say that a tenant of ours had stormed into the office shouting
and swearing and demanding money to stay in a hotel.

A wee bit of background to
this: a landlord that we only find tenants for (TFO) has the flat
upstairs from his, and there was a pretty big leak from her flat into the flat
below. The TFO landlord lives overseas and we don’t hold insurance
for her, and so there was a delay in getting the leak fixed and the works dealt
with. Our angry tenant had to move out and we agreed to put him up
in alternative accommodation or to give him an allowance to stay with friends
and family. He chose to stay with friends and family.

So why the sudden change of heart that
led to him storming into our office demanding cash to stay in
hotel? A few months ago this would have seemed completely out of
character as he was a good tenant with a secure job who paid his rent on
time. I was suspicious about what was going on. Well I
called him myself and told him that we had found him a B&B locally and that
I would pay for his room directly, and give him an allowance for
food. He wasn’t happy with this offer and wanted the cash
instead. In fact he not only wanted the cash, he was desperate for
the cash. This got me wondering what for? Drugs? Drug
debts? Certainly something that was causing him a lot of
stress. Having called his bluff, I never heard from him again.

This got me thinking about what had
happened. The tenant was acting irrationally as he clearly wanted
cash instead of just a bed. However I chose not to offer cash, and
by calling his bluff, I found out that it wasn’t a B&B he was after at
all.

The other consideration here is the
overseas landlord trying to manage her flat from overseas. Had her
property been fully managed by The Key Place, the problem would have been dealt
with much quicker. We offer insurance to our fully managed landlords
and so could have actioned the claim on her behalf too.

This is just one of many real life
stories in our new Confessions of a Letting Agent blog.

About This Blog

This blog follows the buy to let market in Edinburgh. You'll find tips, guidance, and analysis that relates specifically to Edinburgh and you'll also find properties from all the estate agents in the city on here that may make decent investments.

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Robert Young

I operate The Key Place and if you're thinking of buying a property to let in Edinburgh, I'll be happy to advise or just offer a second opinion. I can be contacted on news@thekeyplace.co.uk, or 0131 603 4570.